Contaminated or pure
When conducting a mission in a mining town, the preacher was escorted through a coal mine. Entering a black, grimy, underground tunnel, he saw some beautiful, shiny, pure-white flowers growing out of the black mine earth.
He was amazed! How could anything, let alone a flower of such great beauty and purity, live in that black grime? He asked his guide for an explanation.
The guide told him to throw some coal dust on the flower and watch to see what happened. The preacher did so.
As soon as the coal dust hit those snowy-white petals, it slid straight off, leaving no trace of coal dust to mar its beauty. The surface of the petals was so smooth that the grit and grime had nothing to hold on to. The dirtiness that surrounded the plant and tainted its leaves, and everything else in the mine, could not get a grip on the glossy flower petals. The dirt could not cling.
Our hearts are like that flower in some ways.
We live in a grimy, sin-filled world.
Although we avoid all forms of evil,
we cannot always control our surroundings.
These days we cannot even go shopping without encountering things which would seek to corrupt our eyes and our ears. While we live in this world, we cannot avoid contact with possible corruption.
We WILL come into contact with sin, and we WILL SIN
. . . BUT . . .
IT WILL NOT CLING and it will not contaminate
when our lives are completely surrendered to the will of God.
Once that sin is repented of, confessed and forgiven,
it is COMPLETELY GONE.
It no longer mars the beauty of the Christ-life within us
or the privilege and joy of His abiding presence.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
[or as black as coal dust]
they shall be white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall be as wool
Isaiah 1:18
Oh to be more like that flower in the coal mine!
The VERY MOMENT the coal dust touches its petals, it slides right off!
We need a “moment by moment” experience.
Take me and all I have, dear Lord,
And keep me so close to Thee
That I feel the throb of the deep heart of God
That I keep SHORT ACCOUNTS with Thee.
MEETING IN THE CLOUDS 
LOVE this! So grateful for God’s beautiful creations and the wonderful lessons taught through them! Does anyone know what this flower is called?
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I’m so blessed
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Angela,
You sure are right when you say, “We WILL come into contact with sin, and we WILL SIN . . . BUT . . . IT WILL NOT CLING and it will not contaminate when our lives are completely surrendered to the will of God. Once that sin is repented of, confessed and forgiven, it is COMPLETELY GONE.”
These are the two great ways that the Lord keeps us pure within, by leading us away from sin before it happens and by forgiving confessed sin. Oh to be in His presence, when we will remain pure for an eternity!
May the Lord continue to bless you.
Rob
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Hasten that day!
Our minds defy imagination. We cannot imagine the wonder of being in His presence, of having His nature, of being free from the presence of sin, of being LIKE HIM.
What a Saviour!
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Angela,
Thank God! Though we are in this world of sin, we are not of this world! I don’t deserve God’s grace and mercy, but I thank God for His unmerited favor towards me! “He gave ME beauty for ashes – an inner beauty visible to Him, but certainly beauty in the most unlikely of places!” Absolutely wonderful!
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“In the world but not of it” “We walk not after flesh but after the Spirit ”
How thankful we are that “Greater is He who is in you that he which is in the world”. It is ONLY by His empowerment and enabling that we are able to be “more than conquerors”.
What a Saviour!
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This reminds me of the days when I used to visit our son at the YWAM base in Spain.
The sanitation there leaves a lot to be desired, and where we’d find the worst odour we would invariably find the most beautiful big pink flowers.
Beauty in the most unlikely of places.
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“Beauty in the most unlikely of places”?
True! He gave ME beauty for ashes – an inner beauty visible to Him, but certainly beauty in the most unlikely of places!
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